Learning and Teaching Committee

Preparation for Office for Fair Access (OFFA)

Learning and Teaching Committee is invited to endorse the Widening Participation Strategy set out on pp.2-3 and note the planned activities. Operations Sub-Committee (Budgetary Review) has given approval in principle to the financial aspects though not yet to the details of the proposed posts.

Background

The Access Agreement for approval by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) must include, inter alia, the:

• “Nature and costs of outreach activities to be funded through estimated additional fee income, and also from other sources

• The total amount to be spent on access measures (including financial assistance) …

• Institutional milestones and objectives, including institutional baseline data”.

The Access Agreement applies for five years from 2006 and we aim to submit it by December 2004 so approval can be obtained before serious recruitment activity begins for 2006 entry. To draw up the document we need to agree in principle how much tuition fee income will be spent on outreach activities. This paper outlines current WP activity and suggests a proposed strategy and associated expenditure for addressing this component of the OFFA agreement.

Current Scale of Widening Participation Activity

Widening participation activity at LU is a partnership between departments and central services with the main operational unit being based in the Registry. Funding comes from the HEFCE “postcode premium”, HEFCE Leicestershire Aimhigher funds and the HEFCE summer schools programme. The scale of central activities is summarised briefly in Appendix A and we have details of departmental activities via the widening participation plans submitted each year (Engineering on a Faculty basis).

The Registry Widening Participation Team is currently made up of the following:

FTE	Job Title	Grade	Source of Funding
1.0	WP Manager	ALC3	“Postcode Premium”
1.0	WP Officer	ALC2	Leicestershire Aimhigher
1.0	WP Officer – new post 04/05	ALC2	General funds to 2006, then tuition fee income
0.5	Clerical Officer (Summer School)	GS4 (fixed term)	HEFCE/ESF Summer Schools project

The team essentially has no clerical support for core activities at present, despite the large amount of routine organisational and communication work involved. ALC time is therefore wasted on relatively basic tasks.

Future Strategy

The University is fairly close to its HEFCE benchmarks for students from under-represented groups and, given its location and the nature of its programmes, it is unlikely that the nature of the student intake can be changed significantly in a few years without an unacceptable reduction in intake standards and probably, as a consequence, retention rates. Our proposed strategy for the OFFA agreement is therefore:

• To maintain intakes of students from under-represented groups at their current levels despite the introduction of tuition fees

• To aim to increase our performance indicators for students from under-represented groups by at most a few percentage points by the end of the Access Agreement period

• To increase our outreach activities aimed primarily at general aspiration-raising both locally and nationally, through expansion of the central team and increased LU student involvement

• To set associated targets and milestones for numbers of activities and participants

• To minimise the impact of any increased activities on academic staff to ensure that core research and teaching time is not eroded
  
  

We need to recognise that other HEIs will also be investing in WP initiatives and that additional activity may therefore be required simply to maintain the numbers of acceptably qualified students from under-represented groups currently admitted to the University. Key themes for development, drawing on national objectives, good practice and research include:

• Work with parents
• Activities for younger students (including primary schools, which would also link with our community work agenda)
• Working with more FE Colleges and students studying non-traditional qualifications
• Working with target schools on a national scale. Loughborough recruits nationally and will wish to maintain that position. We need to reassure OFFA that increased fees will not be a barrier to those from outside the East Midlands and this can be particularly relevant in certain subject areas, which are not offered by a student’s local HEI
• Development of a major structured programme of WP activities for 100 LU students (as far as possible from WP backgrounds themselves) to deliver with tuition fee income (£112,500) being used to pay our students for the work they do (eg homework clubs, school visits, mentoring etc.). This meets OFFA’s requirements for both increased outreach activities and financial assistance to our students. A small pilot is underway in 04/05 and we plan to work with e.g. Student Guidance & Welfare and the Students’ Union to provide training and opportunities for explicit skills/CV development
• Improved targeting of events and activities to ensure the participants in activities are genuinely potential “WP” students
• Improved monitoring and evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of the programme drawing on the latest national good practice

To achieve the above, we propose phased increases in central WP staffing and the non-pay budget for activities and payments to students as set out in the attached table. Investment in one ALC 2 post (see above) plus an operational budget of £5,000 has already been agreed in advance of the introduction of tuition fees and we are proposing further investment this year and in the following three years to enable the scale of operation to develop in stages. This phasing is broadly in line with the financial model presented to Council in July though the sums requested are smaller overall (see attached spreadsheet). Although income will not be available until 2006/07 it makes sense to invest now to mitigate against any potential deterrent effect of the new fee regime which affects those applying in 2005/06. At this stage, the timescale for each activity (apart from the LU student participation) is not fixed and in practice it may prove desirable to adjust the priorities in light of experience.

Jennifer Nutkins/Justine Sanders/Howard Jones

14 October 2004

Proposals for development and increased expenditure 2004/05 to 2008/09

Academic year	Number of Additional Participants	Number of additional events/activities	Additional Staff Required	Further Comments	Additional Funding Required
2004/05	200	5	1GS4	New GS4 post proposed to support event organisation and provide essential back up to the team who are regularly out of the office thus freeing expensive ALC time for higher level tasks (e.g. improving targeting, developing evaluation processes, planning for new 2005/06 developments).	GS4 for part of the year £11,000 Total = £11,000 (£22,000 in 2005/06)
2005/06	480 plus those involved intensively with Students Helping Students (est. 100)	12 plus launch of major LU student participation programme	1 ALC2 1 GS3	New developments will include increasing the use of current undergraduates (Students helping Student) new activities for parents and younger children some expansion of current successful initiatives Piloting of new activities with FE Colleges and national work The ALC2 post would manage the major developments The GS3 post is needed primarily to support the student activity programme given the large number of LU students, schools and colleges to be involved.	ALC2 £33,000 GS3 £18,000 Operating budget: 12 new events at £300 each = £3,600 Payment of 35 students working 5 hours per week @ £7.50 /hr inc. travel & training expenses for 30 weeks = £39,375 Total = £93,975
2006/07	400 plus est. 120 Students Helping Students participants	10 plus further expansion of LU student programme	1 ALC2 0.5FTE GS3	The additional foci for this year would be: Launch of major work with FE Colleges Significant expansion of national activities e.g. with the Specialist Schools Trust Further expansion of LU student programme Additional ALC2 to manage new activity strands Additional GS3 to provide effective organisation and back up	ALC2 £33,000 0.5FTE GS3 £9,000 Operating budget: 10 new events at £300 each = £3,000 Additional 40 students working for scheme at cost of £45,000 Total = £90,000
2007/08	40 plus est. 10 Students Helping Students participants	1 plus further expansion of LU student programme		The WP Team would now be established. Further refinements would be made in light of feedback and national good practice and new approaches implemented to replace outdated/less effective events etc. Further expansion of LU student programme. Compliance with Access Agreement reviewed	Operating budget: 1 new event at £300 Additional 35 students working for scheme at cost of £39,375) Total = £39,675
2008/09 onwards	0	o		Continued evolution of activity within existing resource with increases for inflation only

Appendix A

Widening Participation Activity to date (October 2004)

• Just over 2,000 prospective students and their parents have been involved
• At least 40 different schools/colleges have been partners in these activities
• Current University students have been used for the majority of activities (60 different students have worked with us over the year(unpaid))
• The Science Summer School activities have included 183 students over three sessions (run by the Science Faculty until 2004)
• Leicestershire Aimhigher has provided funding to work with over 1,700 students over 24 different events
• Loughborough University has provided funding to work on a more national scale with approximately 400 students over 9 different events
• An additional post in the University Counselling Service has been created
• The “postcode premium” contributes to the running costs of the Maths Education Centre

A range of relevant events and schools liaison activities are also undertaken by departments/Faculty of Engineering and these are detailed in their WP plans.